Word Origin & History

branch c.1300, "limb of a tree" (also used of things analogous to it, especially geographic features), from O.Fr. branche "branch, bough, twig; branch of a family" (12c.), from L.L. branca "footprint," later "a claw, paw," of unknown origin, probably from Gaulish. The connecting notion would be the shape. Replaced native bough. Meaning "local office of a business" is first recorded 1817, from earlier sense of "component part of a system" (1690s). The verb meaning "to diverge from a central point" is first attested 1799. Related: Branched; branching.

Example Sentences for branch

It should have broken when it hit the branch of the apple tree.

If the branch had broken,” said Mr Enderby, “what would you have done then?

The importance to the aspirant of this branch of self-training can scarcely be magnified.

In a clearing that he came to there were birds; he saw four on a branch together.

The utmost fidelity and diligence will be expected of all officers in every branch of the public service.

She used to go into a wood and whisper along the branch of a tree.

He would curl his long tail about a branch, and swing to and fro with manifest enjoyment.

He prefers the other branch of the declaration in the Bill of Rights.

In no branch of medicine or sociology is this fallacy more fruitful of error than in the domain of mental disease.

The water that he drank from the branch only made his hunger sickness worse.